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Vault: The safe-crackers guide to time

Andrew says: The following concept is inspired by the combination lock on a security safe or bank vault. This wristwatch use two / three Analogue Disc/s plus one / two rings of for Binary indicators to display the current time. Constructed in three materials: Black IP, Stainless Steel or Gun-Metal each disc is LED Back lit for easy night time reading.

The Translucent Glass Analogue Disc rotate in a anti-clock direction & is read at the 12 0’Clock position / zero degrees. The first disc: Minutes 00-55, Second Disc: Hours: 1-12, Third Disc: Seconds: 00-55. The Binary LED Indicate the number of Single minute or seconds that have elapsed & only activate once the user presses the LED Back Light Button & AM / PM indicator in the Center.

This wristwatch has both a security & slight criminal theme to it so it will appeal to anyone who works in a bank or a safe Cracker.

To set this wrist watch the need only to press down firmly on the Discs they wish to alter. This action cause the dis to raise up out of the watch face & disengage from the movement. Then turn it Anti-clock: Increase / Clockwise to the correct Hour or turn the Minutes / seconds disc slightly to alter the single increments.

14 thoughts on “Vault: The safe-crackers guide to time”

I like the mechanical feeling on this one, the exposed dials rotating just like a combination lock.

The pop-up dials for setting is a great idea, but this would be a difficult watch to make because of the custom movement. Not that this should stifle peoples imagination because solutions can be found ~ but a custom mechanical movement for timekeeping is very costly. (this idea probably could use a regular watch movement with discs with some small changes)

I am willing to admit that the pop up display discs / dials are a bit ambitious in reality. Plus the order / sequence of the numbers that appear on each dial could be altered (Reversed ?) in order for a traditional clockwise analogue movement. The Concentric Display dials could tiered / stacked on to top of a another & alter via a bezel control surround each dial. Or the watch could be set via two / three control wheels located on the right hand side of the case.

I like the look of this design as I do like a little mechanical action every now and again. I imagine getting a disc to rotate on the opposite direction would be tricky and the interactive setting would be uber cool but again difficult. The design suggests to me that it should digital using a TFT touchscreen, so it looks like a mechanical watch from a distance but you could have the backwards rotation and touch and drag to set. Also you could switch between watch face styles and colours. 5/Y best of luck sir! 😀

A mechanical analogue version of this concept may be to difficult / expensive to produce in reality. However Pete I really like the idea of changing it to a TFT touchscreen movement. With the following controls: Scroll Up / Down Change Color/s , Left right: Change Face / Number style/s & Press & Hold Set time. The order numbers could remain the same or be reversed.

Nice idea, Andrew.
Backwards rotation should not be a problem for an analogue watch – I have a backwards watch already (for when I want to wear a near normal watch ;)) and you can also buy backwards clocks. However, the TFT ideas here a cool too.
Good luck and 5* from me.

Nice ring look of the watches. Maybe number circles are a bit too common as an image. The combination lock inspiration is still a cool thing. What about really making a combination lock watch? Just go there, be more like the inspiration. Add a turning switch in the middle of the case. That can be used to set the time/alarm/date and maybe for really unlocking some features. Hehe, locking the straps would be epic but probably not feasable at a good price. But think about being more literal (shush Pete xD) less usual. For me personally the AM/PM indicators are too present. Two big letters not in the center of the circles are a bit disturbing the harmony. A simple dot for PM would suffice. The extra ring for the last four minutes is nice. You see, I’m a little torn. Good luck though and really more fun with making stuff.

P.S.: Better use a monochrome background – less is more.
You can export an image without the lines first, then put an image with the lines on top of it and make it 50% transparent – that makes the lines 50% intense (which SketchUp doens’t allow you) So the final look is a bit more pleasant (I hope).
Try to use circles with more segments. 24 is a bit too rough.

Just some things to poke. It’s cool what you already do with SketchUP 🙂

Cheers for Approval of the overall idea “Combination Lock” / “Safe” inspiration behind this concept, I like the the idea of a mode selector switch in the middle of the watch case. In order to make this a multiple mode display wrist watch however this may have to be applied to a TFT touchscreen version as it may be to complex to construct mechanical. I create my design using Sketch up export each material example to GIMP & add background, alter the file so I can add lines, text etc in Paint. Once I have add complete all the required examples then select / re size the examples & place them in a zipped folder before submission. I will take your advice aboard.

Hi Andrew.. nice mechanical design, it would look great if the numbers were lit up with LED’s.

I have used sketch-up since day one of my submissions and still do to this day. I was disheartened by all the sweet and realistic looking renders out there and so I downloaded a renderer program FOR sketch-up so I could feel like im competing on the same level.

Take a look at it buddy, its called Indigo Renderer and can be found on the sketch-up extension warehouse. Its what I use for all my watches, build ’em on sketch-up…sweeten ’em up with the renderer. This way you dont have to faff about learning a new program.

The display ring/s could be made from the same material as the watch case: mechanical, or the digits coould be colored with charcoal / grey rings if constructed as a TFT touchscreen. I will consider installing Indigo (Sketch-Up Extension) rendering program to improve the quality / look of my design concept submissions once I have some new ideas. So thanks for your suggestions Justin.